Burning gapless CD's from MP3

[sachs]

I want to thank everybody for the previous help with burning FLAC files. CD's result absolutely excelent and gapless. The problem and "mystery" until today is as follows:

Now I am planning to download several operas from different stores. They come, the majority, only as MP3 files. And continuous music comes fully tracked, as is proper in operas as scenes' just refferences. Well, even when DG web store advices to use iTunes for getting perfect results, many people from different forums have told that, with the exception of LAME compressed MP3 files, that's absolutely impossible with any application. This, because MP3 files always bring a silent time that is kept when converted to WAV, then getting fully gapped CD's impossible to listen adequately through the stereo system. This would mean that all the downloadable works that contain long pieces of continuous music (tracked, as refferences) will always get fully gapped burnt CD's, reality that is very hard to accept for people that prefer listening through the stereo with burnt CD's. Please, be so kind to give me a definitive answer because I have not downloaded the above mentioned works for the possibility to get spoiled CD's. Many thanks and cheers

I saw that I already asked this same question. Please forgive me. It is I still do not get a definitive answer either from the applications support or from forums. It's very difficult to admit that so common situation doesn't have a clear picture inside specilized places.

[shoarthing]

OK - let's run through this one more time.

What you need to do [to listen to continuous music] is to join your 'tracks' to remake the seamless whole.

I run Macs, so use different applications . . .  but I do know that 'Audacity' is free & cross-platform & works OK.

What you do is convert the 'tracks' to *.wavs from whatever form you obtained them. Then you need to copy & paste 'track' 2 to the end of 'track' 1, then cut out any end-of-track/beginning-of-track silences previously added by processing the source into 'tracks'

 . .  then add 'track' 3 & so on & so on. You end up with a long continuous *.wav with all the completely flat bits [added silences between 'tracks'] cut out.

Burn this *.wav to CD - it will have no silences nor track-markers.

As an aside [I don't want to discuss this here until you have read up on the background]: if the original seamless recording was properly ripped using [say] EAC to make a cuesheet & a set of FLACs, you can get back to the gapless original without going through the above process.

This sort of grade A1 rip will not, generally speaking, be commercially available or easily available for any sort of legal download. It is the sort of thing an individual will do for their own collection to make a fully reversible digital archive.

Audio-fanatic geeks tend to rip like this to FLACs using cuesheets & EAC [Windows] or XLD [Macs]; then if users of iPods further compress to VBR mp4 using their engine of choice. They tend to use specific hardware - you need to know the offsets of the ripping/burning optical drives for fully reversible rips & certain very specific optical drives are much, much better for ripping than others - I and many others still use elderly Plextor SCSI devices for this where possible.